No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

There I stood, for what seemed like the hundredth time this week, unloading my children’s lunch boxes. One by one, I took each apple slice and pieces of half eaten sandwiches out of the plastic containers and dumped them into our trashcan. Starting tomorrow, I would tell them that mommy was going on strike when it came to making their lunches and that they were going to start ordering from the school.

Visions of having afternoons free of cleaning lunch boxes crowded my thoughts when a little voice came up behind me. “Thank you for packing those chocolate peanut butter bars today in our lunch mommy! They were sooooo good! My friends even asked if they could have a bite!” It was then that I realized the reason why they didn’t eat their lunch.

Let me back up a minute and just state….it is literally hard to pack lunches every morning for my kiddos. I’m one of those mother’s who starts the school year off with a humungous list of lunch ideas and then somehow, by the middle of the school year this list goes out the window. They start asking for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as their main meal. I, of course, pack it for them only to find it untouched and uneaten everyday.

I’ve tried halving the sandwiches and have also tried packing protein rich items such as mozzarella sticks and peanut butter and crackers. Nothing seems to work with them. I cringe every time I open a lunchbox and still see the food I prepared earlier that morning, unscathed. Then my conscience starts talking to me, repeating the words, “Bad mom! You can’t even make their lunches correctly!”

No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

This particular day, however, I knew exactly why they didn’t eat their lunch. I made the crazy mistake of packing these bars as a little treat. Quite honestly, I don’t blame them for wanting to skip out on the fruit and sandwiches. Crushed Vanilla Wafers, peanut butter, regular butter, and powdered sugar make the bottom layer of these bars hard to resist. While the chocolate topping adds a little finesse to it all. The fact that it’s also a no bake dessert makes it even more tempting for mommy to produce another batch or two…or three!

No Bake desserts are a busy parent’s best friend!

The original recipe didn’t call for pecans, however, I took the liberty of adding them onto each piece. If you aren’t a fan of pecans, try topping the squares off with strawberry slices. If you are making these for Valentine’s Day, cut the bars out in the shape of little hearts instead of squares. These bars made it in to our family’s favorite collection and into our kids lunch boxes! We hope you enjoy them as well!

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